Re-seasoning a Humi

Hey guys, after a bit of advice for re-seasoning my humidor. I have some distilled water from a number of years ago from when I first seasoned my Humi, still sealed in its bottle. Would it still be safe to use to re-season my humidor for a few weeks do you reckon? Or should I buy some fresh distilled water?

Thanks

[longknocker]

Originally Posted by Sisko

Hey guys, after a bit of advice for re-seasoning my humidor. I have some distilled water from a number of years ago from when I first seasoned my Humi, still sealed in its bottle. Would it still be safe to use to re-season my humidor for a few weeks do you reckon? Or should I buy some fresh distilled water?

Thanks

Should Be Fine. Place The Distilled H20 In Several Shot Glasses Placed In Humi For 2 Weeks.

[T.G]

It's probably ok - taste it, smell it and see. But, if it's easy enough to get a new bottle, I'd go that route, but I don't know how hard it is to find in your country. I seem to recall someone a year or two from Ireland(?) saying that the only place he could find distilled water was at the pharmacy.

Originally Posted by longknocker

Should Be Fine. Place The Distilled H20 In Several Shot Glasses Placed In Humi For 2 Weeks.

Cool, just started humidifying again it is easy to get distilled water in the UK, so I will leave it for a couple of weeks again to humidify. Them I will get some more Stogies and fill it some

Another query: I only started re-seasoning my Humi last night, and the reading on my digital metre for humidity inside the Humi was 56/57%.

Out of curiosity, I checked the reading again just now after one night and it has increased to 67% after one night!!! That can't be right surely can it?? The Humi granted has not been opened in about 2 years and there are no cigars in it....there is no way that it has retained the humidity from so long ago surely right? My digital hygrometer must be out of wack lol

Any thoughts??

EDIT: Also I am using a low coffee cup for holding the water, it's small in height so it fits under my shelf in the humi but quite wide so there is a good amount of water in the mug. Could that be a big factor??

[RHerrington]

It's always a good idea to recalibrate your hygrometer if you think somethings funky - but most likely the cause for your spike in humidity is because it's measuring the humidity of the air, not the wood.

Re-seasoning is to get the wood back up to snuff. I'm sure if you were to remove the coffee mug and wait a bit, the humidity readings would drop back down again just as dramatically. Best to leave the coffee mug with water in there for the full two weeks. Remember - patience is key to properly seasoning your humi.

Good luck!

[Brutus2600]

With the cup of water in there you'll see a RH spike fairly quick, but if you removed that cup it would drop down again. Leaving it in there for a week or two allows the humidor to absorb that water and once the cup is removed it should maintain a consistent RH.

Also, if you're curious if your hygrometer is still any good or how accurate it is, just do a salt test with it

[area51]

What I do with my humis is take a slightly damp sponge and rub the walls of the humi so it can absorb the moisture a bit quicker. Disclaimer some say that the wood will swell than shrink resulting in cracking, splintering etc. I personally have never had this happen in any of my 5 humis. Food for thought.

Originally Posted by Brutus2600

With the cup of water in there you'll see a RH spike fairly quick, but if you removed that cup it would drop down again. Leaving it in there for a week or two allows the humidor to absorb that water and once the cup is removed it should maintain a consistent RH.

Also, if you're curious if your hygrometer is still any good or how accurate it is, just do a salt test with it

Ah you will have to remind me how to do a salt test, my memory is a bit rusty on that one.

Cheers

[dwoodward]

Considering distilled water is like pure H2O can it actually get old?

Not trying to derail your thread, just I'm curious now.

[T.G]

Originally Posted by dwoodward

Considering distilled water is like pure H2O can it actually get old?

Not trying to derail your thread, just I'm curious now.

Once the bottle has been opened and some poured out, the empty space is now filled with the surrounding atmosphere. Depending on what happens to be floating in the air at that time, you can potentially introduce varying levels of spores, bacteria and other contaminants. Also, some plastic bottles are permeable to certain gasses/fumes, which could, over time, taint the water. Not to say that there will be a problem from having an old open bottle, but depending on conditions, the potential exists that there could be a problem.